Homelander is the unstable leader of The Seven in The Boys, the Amazon series that premiered in 2019 and stars Antony Starr as the character, adapted from the comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. Clips of his meltdowns and strained expressions became popular reaction material on TikTok and YouTube in the early 2020s, as fans cut his dramatic moments into short meme sounds. This stressed version is still used because his loss of control contrasts with his invincible image, making ordinary anxiety feel absurdly dramatic.